Hacking Hardware Picofly - a HWFLY switch modchip

[LuigiGad]

That NYX error might indicate some data corruption on your SD card.

With a cool head I think I understood what made me confused during the various tests. I made the big mistake of testing the ofw not by completely disconnecting the picofly, but by disconnecting only the cmd so as to mislead the boot and have the original boot. Unfortunately the DAT0 remained connected to the 47ohm resistor and this led me to have a black screen in stock while in reality it was not stock. This led me to look for the mistake where there was none and in fact waste a lot of time. You never stop learning

 

[jkyoho]

With a cool head I think I understood what made me confused during the various tests. I made the big mistake of testing the ofw not by completely disconnecting the picofly, but by disconnecting only the cmd so as to mislead the boot and have the original boot. Unfortunately the DAT0 remained connected to the 47ohm resistor and this led me to have a black screen in stock while in reality it was not stock. This led me to look for the mistake where there was none and in fact waste a lot of time. You never stop learning

I thought after failed glitching modchip always redirect bootloader back to official Nin BL and straight into OFW, at least my WaveShare RP2040 pico/ONE/ZERO/tiny does that normally.

 

[Tom8823]

Anybody had this before?

I installed my chip with mosfet more than a year ago.

Everything was working fine for months except that twice already I had a situation where after I upgraded switch firmware my chip failed to boot up. I updated to 18.1.0 yesterday and I shut down console and pressing power button does nothing. No LED light on chip, nothing, dead. I managed to start console by holding power button for 30 seconds and hekate started. I opened picobox and reset switch and after shutting down console it booted up but on another shutdown again black screen and I have to hold power button long to fix it. Then on another boot up hekate starts but starting CFW ends up with "failed to init emmc" error. The only way to permanently fix it is to open console and disconnect battery and reconnect. Then it will act fine and until next time it happens which can take months. I am not 100% sure it's related to firmware update but that's what I did yesterday.

My soldering is good becaue like I say it will work fine for months until this happens. Then I have to open console to reconnect battery. It's so annoying

Also my console crashed after echoes of wisdom so maybe it's emmc error.

 

[LuigiGad]

try changing the cmd resistance, you have to do some cross tests to find the problem.

 

[linkref]

Does anyone found a solution for the short short long error (**=), the latest firmware did not help.
Occurs only on some OLEDs, error occure 1 times out of 10, rest of the time it's okay glitching.

I fix this with instinct nx but now i do not have any nx left...

 

[lightautodark]

Does anyone found a solution for the short short long error (**=), the latest firmware did not help.
Occurs only on some OLEDs, error occure 1 times out of 10, rest of the time it's okay glitching.

I fix this with instinct nx but now i do not have any nx left...

Yup. It was the kamikaze point soldering. Check my previous post.

Even though the dat0 value measured fine, just redo your soldering, I managed to correct my 2 units that have this exact problem.

 

[twins333]

Yup. It was the kamikaze point soldering. Check my previous post.

Even though the dat0 value measured fine, just redo your soldering, I managed to correct my 2 units that have this exact problem.

It's the dat0 connection in general. it happened with a dat0 adapter as well.

 

[Danook28]

Can i dump nintendo switch nand chip in to other nintendo switch v1 rcm hekate or must i use hardmood to dump it.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

Can i dump nintendo switch nand chip in to other nintendo switch v1 rcm hekate or must i use hardmod to dump it.

You can also use a dumped nand from the internet as dumping your own nand won't give you any other advantage.
But if you want to dump it, you either need to install a modchip on the source Switch or temporarily remove the emmc and put it on a USB reader board to make a dump with a PC.

Here is the guide for what to do once you have a dumped nand.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/nand-rebuilding-for-no-backup-broken-emmc.593995/
Note that you will not get a fully working Switch. you can't go online and you can't boot the OFW.
So your target Switch also needs a modchip.

 

[juanitovic]

Hello everyone, I have a question, hopefully someone can help me... I have a Switch Lite with Picofly installed, and now I bought an Switch Oled and I want to take the "RP2040 Zero" out of the "Lite" and put it on the "OLED", I just have to install it? Or do I have to reflash the chip? or do something special?... Thank you for your attention and your answers, have a great day

 

[Nephiel]

Hello everyone, I have a question, hopefully someone can help me... I have a Switch Lite with Picofly installed, and now I bought an Switch Oled and I want to take the "RP2040 Zero" out of the "Lite" and put it on the "OLED", I just have to install it? Or do I have to reflash the chip? or do something special?... Thank you for your attention and your answers, have a great day

I would just get a new RP2040 Tiny for the OLED, and not bother uninstalling from the Lite. Unless it's broken and already being harvested for parts... nah, probably not even then.

The Picofly firmware is the same for all current Switch models, it's easy to flash before install. A working install can also be updated afterwards with the Picofly Toolbox.

Be warned the DAT0 point on the OLEDs is much, much more difficult to reach, keep that in mind. If unsure, find a reliable installer who can do the "Kamikaze" or "interposer PCB" methods.

 

[juanitovic]

I would just get a new RP2040 Tiny for the OLED, and not bother uninstalling from the Lite. Unless it's broken and already being harvested for parts... nah, probably not even then.

The Picofly firmware is the same for all current Switch models, it's easy to flash before install. A working install can also be updated afterwards with the Picofly Toolbox.

Be warned the DAT0 point on the OLEDs is much, much more difficult to reach, keep that in mind. If unsure, find a reliable installer who can do the "Kamikaze" or "interposer PCB" methods.

Thanks for answering, the installation on the oled is not a problem, for me it is imperative to move the rp2040 from the "lite" to the "oled", but before doing so I would like to know if I just have to install it, or I have to reflash, or use the option "Training Data Reset" in the picofly Toolbox for example... or is it just to remove and put on?

 

[hippy dave]

Thanks for answering, the installation on the oled is not a problem, for me it is imperative to move the rp2040 from the "lite" to the "oled", but before doing so I would like to know if I just have to install it, or I have to reflash, or use the option "Training Data Reset" in the picofly Toolbox for example... or is it just to remove and put on?

Resetting the training would sound like a good idea

 

[juanitovic]

Resetting the training would sound like a good idea

Yes, I think the same, what I plan to do is use the "Training Data Reset" option from the lite, turn off the console, take out the chip and put it in the "OLED", turn on the console and hopefully everything works great, I wish someone who has already done this could share their experience with me.

 

[Nephiel]

I don't understand why you would want to take the chip off the Lite... but OK, since you insist.

Yes, I think the same, what I plan to do is use the "Training Data Reset" option from the lite, turn off the console, take out the chip and put it in the "OLED", turn on the console and hopefully everything works great, I wish someone who has already done this could share their experience with me.

As far as I know, that should work.

Which Picofly firmware version? If it's too old, I would just use flash_nuke.uf2 to clear everything after removal and flash the latest before reinstall, just to be sure.

 

[juanitovic]

I don't understand why you would want to take the chip off the Lite... but OK, since you insist.


As far as I know, that should work.

Which Picofly firmware version? If it's too old, I would just use flash nuke.uf2 to clear everyrhing after removal and flash the latest before reinstall, just to be sure.

My firmware version is 2.75, do you think it is necessary to use nuke.uf2?

 

[lightninjay]

My firmware version is 2.75, do you think it is necessary to use nuke.uf2?

"Necessary"? Unlikely. But if you use nuke.uf2, you can guarantee it is the same as if you were fresh-installing a new firmware to a fresh rp2040.

 

[juanitovic]

"Necessary"? Unlikely. But if you use nuke.uf2, you can guarantee it is the same as if you were fresh-installing a new firmware to a fresh rp2040.

Ok understood, thank you all very much for your time and answers, BTW and taking advantage of the occasion thank you Lightninjay for your "Picoflyguide" has helped me a lot. Have an excellent day and thank you all again.

 

[Tom8823]

Question. Is the pico chip turned off when console is turned off?

I have weird issue where my console (v2 mariko) was at around 50% charge and I knew I will not use it for couple of days so I switched it off (not sleep mode). To my surprise after 2 days of console being completely turned off I couldn't start it so I connected charger and saw hekate showing battery level at 0.5%. WTF?! It was 50% when I switched it off and it died completely.

Does the chip take any current even with console off?

 

[jkyoho]

Question. Is the pico chip turned off when console is turned off?

I have weird issue where my console (v2 mariko) was at around 50% charge and I knew I will not use it for couple of days so I switched it off (not sleep mode). To my surprise after 2 days of console being completely turned off I couldn't start it so I connected charger and saw hekate showing battery level at 0.5%. WTF?! It was 50% when I switched it off and it died completely.

Does the chip take any current even with console off?

Yes, cause the chip is not hard wire power source from the battery, the 3.3v turns off when console is off.